Freakonomics interviews Kevin Kelly about his "68 bits of unsolicited advice"

When my friend and Cool Tools partner Kevin Kelly turned 68 a few weeks ago, he posted an essay to his website titled "68 bit of unsolicited advice." (I posted it to Boing Boing.) Kevin's advice quickly went viral, and this week he was the guest on the Freakonomics podcast, where he talked about the list, among other things.

KELLY (reading from 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice): Learn how to learn from those who disagree with you, or even offend you. See if you can find truth in what they believe.

DUBNER: So the value of doing this one seems obvious, especially in a moment where so many people are so quick to take offense, and to be offensive. Can you give me an example of where youve actually done this?

KELLY: There are parts of my books where Ive written something, and somebody will say something very strong, about, Thats dumb, or its stupid, or wrong. And thats pretty harsh. But my take is to say, Let me see if theres any truth to that. Sometimes theres not. Sometimes there may be some sliver of something. And what Ive learned to do is to respond to that little sliver. To try to get underneath why theyre saying it and where is it theyre coming from. I dont have to necessarily always agree with them or change it, but I have to pay attention to that signal. And so Ive learned to treat these things as signals rather than as insults.